West Wing Swap

I did it! I love swapping crafts on Craftster.org & I finally decided to organize my a swap on there. It's a West Wing themed swap because, well, it's the best tv show of all time. You can check out my swap here.

I drank the kool-aid

My mom hosted a "crafty weekend" for my family (well, the girls in the family) a few weeks ago & I didn't take any pictures at all, but you can see my mom's blog post, my cousin Karen's blog post, & my aunt Colleen's blog post for some pictures & details. Karen even made us some goodie bags, including "Creative Juice" (bottled water). Thanks Karen! Anyway, I think being around those quilters (my mom & Karen) got to me 'cause I'm planning to make a quilt now. I'd like to make a fun kid's quilt with lots of textures & fun fabrics. I've asked for creative quilt blocks in some of my swaps on Craftster & this is what I got:

If I ever get the time I'll be making a few of my own & I'm going to keep asking for them in swaps 'cause it's fun seeing what other people come up with.

Christmas crafts

I had lots & lots of crafting to do for Christmas so I had to put Cooper to work. He painted birdhouses for Grandpa & Papa, & frame mats for both Grandma's & Daddy (and we framed a picture of Dexter & Cooper of course).




I made cloth doll diapers for my friend Joslyn's daughter (so she'd stop stealing her sister's disposable diapers),


a towel wrap for my dad,


a laptop case for John's sister's laptop,


a t-shirt for Pat (our future brother-in-law), who loves his van,


and a family tree wall hanging for my mom.


And since I know you've been holding your breath to see what this was (or you've completely forgotten about it), I made a card table felt playhouse for Cooper. There's felt mail for the mailbox & the fruit, vegetables, & birds are all attached with velcro so they can be moved around. (It's a really impressive idea that I completely stole from here.)

Catching up a bit...

Alright, so I'm really far behind in my blogging. Where did I leave off? Just before Cooper's birthday. So I finished these for a swap on Craftster:

Then the weekend before Cooper's birthday we took him out shopping (Build A Bear & the Lego Store) & he rode on a mall train for the first time. He was a big fan, especially because he had to have a ticket.

On Cooper's actual birthday, John was working so Cooper & I went to the zoo. We walked around quite a bit & I started having contractions. I'd been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for quite a while, but at some point they got more regular & I realized labor was starting. My contractions stayed about 10 minutes about for at least 24 hours before they started to pick up. In that time I walked around the zoo, slept all night, went shopping with John & Cooper, & we all took the dogs for a walk, so I was obviously not feeling too bad.
Wonderful cousin Karen (a nurse who does home births) came out to our house to check on me (after her bedtime even! & she lives an hour away!) so I could postpone the hospital as long as possible. (Thanks Karen!) A few hours after she left my contractions were 3 minutes apart & even though I was sure we had a long time, John insisted we head to the hospital. My mom (who lives an hour & a half away) was able to meet us at the hospital (and I'm sure she didn't break any traffic laws doing it). As I suspected, we had plenty of time. I was only 5-6 cm. Unfortunately, the hospital insisted I lay flat on the bed so they could monitor the baby, making the contractions much worse & me much more tense. Three hours later when I was still at 5-6 cm I gave up & asked for the epidural. Not the natural birth I'd been hoping for, but it all worked out in the end. Dexter was born after only 3 pushes & he was healthy & beautiful.


We came home from the hospital a couple days later & a swap package was waiting for me. This was probably the best one I've gotten so far - a rocket zipper pouch:

And a personalized toddler busy book:

Shapes that snap on, velcroed finger puppet animals,

velcroed finger puppet space characters,

a magnetic tic tac "toad" game, and buttoned flowers. Just in time too. Cooper got these as soon as he came home from spending a few days with Grandma & Papa Fred & it kept him busy as we adjusted to having the baby home.

The day after we got home we got to see Adam! His training was done & he had a weekend break before leaving for Afghanistan. He has a condo with basically four rooms (living room, bedroom, office, & kitchen/dining room) & we filled it with screaming kids: Zak, Caycee, Cooper, Lynzee, & Dexter. We're getting close to being outnumbered by the kids which is pretty scary, but we had a great time (although Adam's neighbors probably hated us for being so loud; good thing he won't be living there for almost a year). Here's Uncle Adam with Cooper & Dexter (in green eggs & ham shirts mommy made them!):

Recent swaps

I recently made a couple gifts for my friend Becca's daughter Samantha's 3rd birthday: a monster hooded towel (by request!) and a Abby shirt:


And I sent out some stuff for a few more swaps on Craftster.org. For one recipient, four onesies,

and an owl shirt and baby leg warmers for another.


For a larger swap, a baking set with apron & felt cookies, a pillowcase dress, headbands, flower garland party lights, and a doorway puppet theatre.






I've also gotten some swap packages recently (not for the big swap above yet). Some reusable Swiffer covers along with some fabric, velcro, elastic, & candy:

And some hand-dyed playsilks for Cooper with some fabric and a polymer clay rolling pin (I've been wanting to dabble in some polymer clay crafting):

And more swap packages are on their way in & out! :)

Missions accomplished

I'm a little late in posting this, but Cooper & I went to Brookfield Zoo with my brother Adam just before he left for training for his deployment to Afghanistan.
Adam wanted to spend time with me & Cooper before leaving, and get pictures of himself riding animals (yes, himself), but I convinced him to take a couple with Cooper too.

Not sure what this face is about...

As we were leaving, Adam was my lookout for a little project I had. I recently came across this great website, The Toy Society, so I made a small stuffed animal & I wanted to leave it someone to find. You can see the post on the Toy Society site about my drop here and about the person who found it here!

Catching up, craftwise

Sorry, if you're friends with me on Facebook you're probably sick of seeing this stuff, but here's some stuff I've made recently:

Little taggie blanket

Superhero cape

Tie shirts

Awesome patchwork pants. Cooper & I love these.

A Lost (the tv show) pouch. Get it? It's supposed to look like a beach and it has a plane keychain.

I've also received some really great crafted items recently from swaps on Craftster:

A crayon roll with a coloring book - the person who made it actually drew some really cool pictures for Cooper to color in

Burp cloths & a changing pad for the new baby

A hat for Cooper (I have a bit of a hat obsession - you can never have too many!)

A hat for the new baby

Onesies for the baby & a scrapbook for the boys

Etsy news

I've actually been making a couple sales from my Etsy shop, which is very exciting. Also, I was finally able to book a spot in the children's showcase for August 11. It was exciting 'cause I got lots of views to my shop & items, but my internet was down for two days so I didn't get to view much. I wanted to stock up the shop before then so I've been doing LOTS of sewing, and trying to make some new stuff.

Lots & lotsa burp cloths

Burp cloth set

Baby leg warmers

More baby leg warmers

A superhero hooded towel

Back of the superhero hooded towel

Alien hooded towel

Cooper modeling his alien towel

Princess hooded towel

Back of the princess hooded towel (modeled by some random toddler... don't worry, I'm sure it's not a boy)

My labels!